What should I do if I can't sleep?, The stuffy and hot weather worsens insomnia. Will taking sleeping pills become addictive, and will staying up late make you silly? Medications | Sleeping pills | Weather

According to statistics from the China Sleep Research Association, over 300 million people in China had sleep disorders in 2021, and the incidence of insomnia in adults was as high as 38.2%. Insomnia has become one of the most common diseases in modern society. As the weather gradually gets stuffy and hot, being unable to sleep has troubled many people. In sleep disorder clinics, patients often ask: Will staying up late make them stupid? Will taking sleeping pills lead to addiction? What should I do if I can't sleep?

Is "unable to sleep" a disease

Sleep is an important foundation for the human body to regulate its physiological functions, repair the body, promote growth and development, maintain endocrine stability, and enhance immunity. In 2019, Science magazine published two consecutive articles revealing the scientific basis for "staying up late to become foolish". For example, memory is organized and stored during sleep, so in the absence of sleep, proteins related to memory storage and consolidation cannot be synthesized, and the brain cannot store information and form long-term memory. In 2021, the Journal of the American Medical Association also published an article confirming that the large amount of metabolic waste and neurotoxic proteins produced by the brain's high-speed operation and energy consumption can only be cleared during deep night sleep. In other words, people often feel physically and mentally exhausted, dizzy, and dizzy after waking up, and the long-term decline in memory is the reason for insufficient deep sleep. In addition, insufficient sleep can lead to weakened immunity, enhanced oxidative stress response, which is considered one of the main triggering factors for inflammation, aging, and chronic diseases including cancer.

If you don't sleep well, do you still feel upset? Due to the overlapping neural circuits of sleep, anxiety, and depression in the brain, insufficient sleep can also lead to tension, fear, irritability, concentration, and decreased stress resistance. When the quality of sleep seriously decreases, it can also lead to a significant increase in the risk of neurological and psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, and other illnesses.

Some people still wonder: since sleep is so important, as long as you can't sleep at night, is it sick? In fact, insomnia can be divided into short-term insomnia and chronic insomnia. Occasionally experiencing short-term insomnia, there is no need for excessive anxiety. As long as you adjust yourself in a timely manner and restore normal sleep habits, you can also receive cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia or use sedative drugs to help fall asleep, and wait for sleep to slowly recover. Chronic insomnia lasting more than 3 months requires long-term medication therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.

As for the treatment method that insomnia patients should adopt, it is necessary for sleep specialists to conduct a comprehensive evaluation based on the patient's individual situation, such as past medical history, causes and severity of insomnia, and relevant auxiliary examination results, and then develop an individualized and precise treatment plan that includes medication treatment, psychological treatment, and physical regulation.

How to take sleeping pills

In clinical clinics, patients often ask, "Doctor, do I get addicted to sleeping pills often? If I don't take them in the future, I won't be able to sleep anymore?" Many people have misunderstandings about sleeping pills and believe that they should take immediate action to help people fall asleep quickly. Meanwhile, for patients taking sleeping pills, whether long-term use will cause drug addiction is also a major confusion.

For a long time, a common view regarding sleeping pills has been that long-term use can lead to reduced efficacy or drug dependence. In fact, there is not much evidence that can effectively prove this viewpoint, and it cannot fully prove that long-term use of sleeping pills will lead to drug dependence. In addition, there is new evidence to suggest that not every patient taking sleeping pills will encounter issues of reduced drug efficacy and drug dependence. It is difficult for insomnia patients to become addicted to or develop drug dependence on sleeping pills if they have not had or are currently addicted to them. So, as long as you take sleeping pills under the guidance of a doctor, there will be no drug dependence or addiction.

"Doctor, take a sleeping pill, can you take another one if you are not asleep?" How should you take a sleeping pill? First of all, during the treatment period, if you need to take other drugs, be sure to inform the doctor in time of the name and dosage of the sleeping pill being taken. Some sleeping pills are easy to interact with other drugs, which can cause the decline of the efficacy of other drugs, and the adverse reactions of sleeping pills poisoning. In addition, the best time to take sleeping pills should be when lying in bed before going to bed, when taking sleeping pills, in order to enhance the therapeutic effect of the drug and reduce nerve inhibition. It should be noted here that non-benzodiazepines, in particular, can fall asleep about 20 minutes after taking them. Once someone got up to wash after taking the medicine, it happened that they fell asleep in the bathroom due to the onset of drug effect. Therefore, be sure to take sleeping pills after all the preparations before going to bed are completed. Finally, when taking sleeping pills, be sure to follow the doctor's advice and take sufficient medication. Some patients are worried about the side effects of sleeping pills and often reduce their dosage or stop taking them, which leads to insomnia and does not heal for a long time. Nowadays, sleeping pills commonly used in clinical practice have been strictly controlled by the drug regulatory department, and some drugs with large side effects and easy addiction have not been used or strictly restricted. Even if you feel that your insomnia is getting better, you should go to the hospital for a follow-up visit in time, follow the doctor's guidance, gradually reduce or change the medicine, and do not stop the medicine suddenly, otherwise it will seriously affect the treatment effect.

How to have high-quality sleep

In addition to sleeping pills, we also have some non pharmacological treatment methods for insomnia, such as psychological and behavioral therapy, traditional Chinese medicine therapy, hypnosis therapy, and physical regulation therapy.

Non pharmacological treatment methods have the characteristics of no dependence, minimal side effects, and good therapeutic effects. At present, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is the main non pharmacological treatment for adult chronic insomnia, including sleep restriction, stimulus control, sleep hygiene education, cognitive therapy, relaxation techniques, and other contents. The treatment process lasts for 6-8 weeks, which can improve the sleep quality of approximately 70-80% of patients, and the therapeutic effect can be maintained for 6-12 months. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia mainly aims to correct the patient's non adaptive poor sleep behavior and unreasonable or unrealistic cognitive concepts, in order to eliminate restlessness, reduce anxiety and depression, and cultivate good sleep habits again. By combining with medication, not only will it not lead to drug dependence and addiction, but patients can also maintain a good sleep state for a long time after successful drug reduction with the help of medication in the short term.

How to have high-quality sleep in daily life? Pay attention to developing good daily habits, such as not staying up late and avoiding overwork; Don't sleep in the morning, cultivate the habit of getting up on time, try to reduce sleep time during the day, and try not to sleep too late at night; During the day, it is important to release stress and engage in outdoor activities to better promote sleep; Don't eat too full or greasy dinner, and avoid spicy and stimulating foods; It is not advisable to be overly excited or anxious before going to bed, and not to play with electronic devices such as mobile phones; The sleeping environment should be kept quiet, comfortable, and suitable for temperature and humidity; To avoid strong light exposure, you can choose to use blackout curtains or eye masks in the bedroom. In addition, maintain a good mindset and avoid negative emotions such as excessive tension, anxiety, and depression in daily life.

One third of a person's life is spent in sleep. I hope everyone can have high-quality sleep and enjoy a brilliant life.